Slaying the Hydra

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime offered drastic change to a country that had long endured the effects of World War I. As leader of the National Socialist party, Hitler sought to bring about a great to change to Germany and the rest of the world that would last a thousand years. He envisioned the Third Reich as a restoration of Aryan domination to a broken world. The Nazi party believed the Jewish population was the root to all the problems the German people had faced. The end result would be Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish Question and the development of a system of concentration camps that would murder millions. Other enemies to Nazi power included the Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union and western capitalist nations.

The increase of Nazi populism required the implementation of propaganda campaigns. Military imagery associated with the defeat of Germany’s threats and the promise of a better future appealed to citizens that suffered the fallout of the Great Depression and the harsh punishments associated with losing World War I. Early Nazi propaganda featured similar Christian images but placed a Nazi-infused spin to associate old glory nostalgia with current party ideals. Anti-Jewish propaganda consistently developed the notion that the Jewish problem needed fixing and that Hitler offered a way to end all perceived injustices.

This poster was created in the early days of the Nazi’s rule in Germany. It depicts a man, wearing an early Nazi uniform, being watched over by a Christian knight and the knight’s arm stretch’s around the man’s shoulder. The two appear to be working together in slaying a threatening hydra. Nazi and Christian symbols are visible on the warriors, while Jewish, Bolshevik, and western capitalist symbols are found on the hydra.

Clearly the intent was to establish to the German population that Nazi power closely related to Christian values and militaristic power. This association of the modern Nazi movement to the Teutonic knights reinforces the idea of the Nazis were a continuation of past glories of German militant. The prestigious past of Germany was widely used in propaganda, “the Nazis, here and elsewhere followed a strategy of infusing old symbols with new meaning, co-opting them for a new faith” (Bytwerk, 22).

The inclusion of Christian symbols in this poster reflect a broader theme of Nazi propaganda. It sought to appeal to traditional beliefs and develop a spiritual connection that religion offered Germans. Christian symbols were an important part of Nazi propaganda, “the Nazis used Christian imagery in abundance” (Bytwerk, 22). Christianity represented a crucial belief in German society and the Nazis effectively used propaganda to illicit a connection to the Nazi movement.

The hydra illustrated in the poster represents the enemies of Nazi ideals. Each head symbolizes a danger to the paradise the Nazis promised. The Jewish head is decorated with motifs associated with the religion. The racist nose commonly used in propaganda and the Star of David decorated the lowest head. The other two heads allude to the risks associated with Bolshevik Communism and Wester Capitalism. The audience would have understood these images and the effective metaphors serve as an effective approach to influencing Germans.

German propaganda in the early years of party reflected the idea that Nazis were noble crusaders against the evils of the world. The inclusion of military virtues and Christian symbols developed a connection to the people of Germany.

Sources:

Bytwerk, Randall L. Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Michigan State University Press, 2012.